Abberley is a parish in rural West Worcestershire situated within the Malvern Hills District Council boundaries. It is an approximate rectangle, 6 miles long and up to a mile wide. The ridge of Abberley Hill forms the long eastern boundary.
Abberley Hill is formed of an overturned thrust fold of Silurian rocks capped with a breccia of Permian age. On the west side of the hill, the sandstones, clays and coal seams of The Wyre Forest coalfield provided employment in extraction of coal from the Middle Ages until the late 1920s and clay for making bricks and tiles from at least the late fifteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century. At the east end of the parish, the underlying clays and sandstones are of Devonian age.
The settlement pattern of Abberley like many parishes in Worcester dates from at least Saxon times and is and remains a dispersed one with houses grouped around farmsteads or greens, Town Farm and Elms Green attest to this style of settlement. Recent local history projects have identified evidence of both pre-historic people and Romans living in the area as well as continuous occupation from the Medieval period to the present day. Farming remains the dominant land use, orchards are far less plentiful than they had been but hops are now being grown again.
Within the parish, a hunting lodge and its associated deer park were given to a favourite of the William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings but at times reverted to the Crown, the last hereditary owners, the Bromleys, sold the estate in 1836. Abberley Lodge was demolished and a new house named Abberley Hall was built by the Moilliets, a Birmingham banking family, the estate was later owned by John Joseph Jones, an Oldham industrialist and banker. After 1910, the Jones heirs chose not to live in Abberley and from 1912, the building has housed Abberley Hall preparatory school. Former pupils include a number of MPs including Geoffrey Howe, later Lord Abaravon and Philip Dunne the sitting MP for South Shropshire. Abberley’s other grand house, The Elms was owned by the Sir Richard and Lady Brooke from 1926 until 1946. Sir Richard established a successful racing stables; King Salmon, his most famous horse won the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown in 1934 and twice came second in the Derby. Training race horses continues elsewhere in the parish to this day. The Elms later became one of the first English country house hotels and is still operates as a hotel and spa today.
Abberley has had a village school since 1717, the school has occupied its current building since 1859. Abberley Post Office was run from rooms in private houses until moving into the Village Stores, Abberley’s remaining village shop, in the twenty first century. The Manor Arms, the remaining pub, was originally called the Bromley Arms. Abberley retains two Church of England churches, but did also have a Methodist Chapel. Owen’s Garage continues to provide a car repair business, but no longer sells fuel or operates the local bus service as it did in the twentieth century.
Update from Worcestershire County Councillor Cllr. Dr. Ken Pollock At this time of unprecedented disruption to our daily lives, I am concerned that all representatives of the people of the Tenbury division should be fully aware of all that is being done to assist them in getting through the crisis with the minimum of trouble. […]
Abberley Parish Council are holding their next Parish Council meeting on Wednesday 22nd April at 7.30pm via ZOOM. Government Legislation has changed for Parish Councils which came into force on the 4th April 2020 to enable Parish Councils across England to carry out their meetings. The change of legislation was introduced as a measure to […]
Current Opening times; Shop Monday – Friday 9am – 6pm Saturday 9am – 4pm Sunday 10am – 12pm Post office hours as normal. Abberley General Stores is still open during the Covid-19 pandemic. I’m sure that most people are aware by now that we’re still open but I just wanted to clarify the current arrangements […]
Please see link below to the 20 minute video by the Solitary Rambler on his hike around Abberley Hill and the Clock Tower. This film features most of the “Abberley Circular Walk”, the leaflet of which is found on Worcestershire County Council’s website. However, the Solitary Rambler ended up following it in the opposite direction […]
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Look after yourself whilst staying at home CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD hospital-discharge-patient-leaflet-editable-v3 Key Messages Reminder that the Here2Help email Here2help@worcestershire.gov.uk is the first point of contact if people want to offer assistance or gain support. The other option is the telephone contact number which is staffed 8am-8pm 7 days a week […]
CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER GUIDANCE – Look after yourself whilst staying at home
A Message from the Parish Council As a result of the ever-changing situation we need to be alert to new advice coming from Government. There are now stringent rules in place for SELF-ISOLATION and for SOCIAL DISTANCING. Unless absolutely necessary, apart from daily exercise, essential food shopping and care of the more vulnerable etc we […]
Worcestershire County Council COVID-19 Update for CALC 3 April 2020 Organisational position Worcestershire County Council is delivering a One Worcestershire approach. We are working alongside our colleagues in District Councils, the NHS, our MPs and with our other partners including Worcestershire’s voluntary sector organisations. Key Messages • Stay at home • Observe social distancing • […]
